The War Within heralds a new era for World of Warcraft. Kicking off the Worldsoul Saga, an interconnected trilogy of expansions led by formerly retired Blizzard legend Chris Metzen, it's pitched by the studio as the starting point for what may end up as WoW's equivalent to Avengers: Endgame.
But fret not, Marvel skeptics; you needn't worry about Phases, cameos, or post-credit sequences here. Instead, jump into The War Within on its own terms, and you'll be treated to a worthy expansion in and of itself, one that offers much-needed polish and contemporization to the World of Warcraft play experience, and suggests this oft-beleaguered MMO is on the way back to its operatic best. Blizzard, it seems, has finally started listening – really listening – to its fans, and the result follows 2022's equally excellent Dragonflight as one of the strongest WoW expansions in recent memory.
Breaking new ground
Release date: August 26, 2024
Platform(s): PC
Developer: In-house
Publisher: Blizzard
For those out of the loop with recent developments in Azeroth, a potted history from the last decade of expansions includes players traveling across time, dimensions, and the very spectral curtain between life and death itself. It's a trippy tapestry of events illustrating just how creative Blizzard has had to become in introducing new locations to this now 20-year-old adventure. There's only so many times a once-hidden continent can surreptitiously emerge onto Azeroth's shores, after all.
Things are no different for its latest expansion, either, and this time around, the studio has had to really look within… quite literally, in fact, towards the subterranean civilization that lies beneath Azeroth's terra firma, which is now threatening to engulf it entirely.
As far as grand narratives in the World of Warcraft canon go, The War Within is up there with some of its best, brought to life with a generous helping of gorgeously rendered in-game cutscenes, and centered around a compelling new villain who threatens the fate of Azeroth itself. That villain, Xal'atath, may have world domination in her sights (hardly a novel characteristic for a Warcraft antagonist), but the more nuanced motivations behind those designs, alongside the seductive charisma which actress Claudia Christian brings to the role, cements Xal'atath as one of the more memorable nemeses for the Azeroth history books.
The War Within's story also paints more interesting character developments on the side of the home team, too. Anduin, the once noble and mighty leader of the Alliance, is a shell of his former self, still grappling from the traumatic events he suffered during the events of Shadowlands, yet the secrets of Khaz Algar offer some intriguing, redemptive glimpses into his future. Thrall, meanwhile, continues to mellow with age, his sagely presence a far cry from the warring chieftain of old, yet a welcome battle companion for some of The War Within's best questlines. These ongoing character arcs, alongside those of other new and familiar faces you interact with throughout the expansion's campaign and meaty side quests, grounds The War Within's world-ending stakes in more human storytelling, and is something I hope that Blizzard leans into further as the Worldsoul Saga progresses.
Speaking of new faces, a quick mention must be given to the expansion's new Allied race, a Dwarven variant known as Earthen. They're hardly an earth-shattering addition to the already vast and vibrant demography of Azeroth, but I do like their novel twist on the Well Fed buff, which is always active and enhanced further by ingesting gems to stack additional buffs to your character.
The region of Khaz Algar itself, meanwhile, presents a healthy mix of classic Blizzard zone design elevated by inspired, aesthetically impressive environmental flair. Two particular highlights include Hallowfall, a verdant archipelago basking in the glow of a giant luminescent crystal, and The Ringing Deeps, which gives Ironforge a run for its money as a cavernous blend of both naturally occurring and impressive Earthen engineering.
Across these zones, you'll come across multiple Delves, which are essentially smaller, narrative-driven alternatives to Dungeons, where up to four players can rally together for bite-sized boosting accompanied by a fully voiced NPC. These in-game Sherpas have a tendency to operate as walking exposition dumps at times, but the ability to tweak their role types and level them up with new abilities does provide a fun, more engaging way to interact with The War Within's cast of characters.
Delves are also the perfect Dungeon alternatives for solo players looking to farm XP on a tight schedule, but when do you find yourself with enough time for something meatier, the Dungeons I've played thus far have consistently offered that familiar cocktail of high-stakes addictive teamplay anchored in a steady drip feed of interesting loot, with pacing that felt just about right to satisfyingly cap off an evening session. And while the expansion's first raid isn't out till September 10, the exemplary blend of cinematic storytelling and eye-popping level design that Blizzard has already flaunted across its new Delves and Dungeons thus far suggests we could be in for a real belter.
Strength from Within
Beyond these new content offerings, Blizzard has also implemented a number of evergreen, systemic changes to World of Warcraft via The War Within, available to all players regardless of whether they own this particular expansion or not. Dynamic Flight, Dragonflight's stellar evolution of WoW's flying mechanics, has now been expanded under the new banner of Skyriding to include hundreds of new and pre-existing mounts, streamlined via a single unifying skill tree. You can explore the entirety of Khaz Alghar from the sky, too, and while this does make it somewhat easy to ignore great swathes of new terrain from above, the moment-to-moment joys of WoW's revamped approach to aerial movement is yet to lose its novelty.
Blizzard's reworks to progression are less of an instant win. Hero Talents are essentially just another set of talent trees to stack on top of your existing ones, and while the simplicity is appreciated compared to some of Blizzard's more convoluted endgame progression systems of expansions past, this is essentially just more of the same here, with mostly passive modifiers to existing abilities, complementing nuanced buildcraft rather than revolutionizing that approach with anything majorly ambitious or inspired. For years, Blizzard has struggled to land on a truly captivating or sustainable endgame progression structure, and while the attempt here is entirely innocuous at best, it ultimately does nothing to solve that ongoing struggle.
Warbands, at least, are a much more positive shift in the right direction, smartly adapting to the playstyles of the WoW faithful who regularly mix and match between multiple alternate characters in the same realm. You can now transfer currencies, gear, and other non-soulbound items between these alts, while other systems which were previously character locked, such as Reputation, Flight Paths, and Achievements, are automatically spread across your entire account.
"Wisely rides Dragonflight's headwinds for a strong, confident kick off to the Worldsoul Saga"
This alteration wisely removes the need to repeat specific grinds across multiple characters and improves endgame progression incentives by bringing many of its strands all under one, neat, account-wide banner. The efficiency and convenience of play generated by the total sum of these changes arguably makes Warbands one of the best things to come out of The War Within for veteran players, and the game's updated home screen, showing all your active characters sharing company around a campfire, is but the icing atop of that smartly implemented cake.
The War Within may not quite reach the same heights in innovation as Dragonflight, but instead wisely rides its headwinds for a strong, confident kick off to the Worldsoul Saga. Some may see this expansion as Blizzard playing it safe, with much of its story and gameplay content operating in familiar territory rather than breaking new ground, but the list of shrewd, sensible iterations it does make further aligns the WoW experience with the needs and wants of its players, lifting its relevance back to the fore at this important junction in the game's lifespan.
Better yet, all of these improvements are delivered within a gorgeous new playspace that brings genuine wonder to the underground and points towards some interesting canonical shake-ups for World of Warcraft moving forward. Deep breath, folks; you're probably not going to be coming back up to Azeroth's surface for air for quite some time after this.
